2016 Bill Tracker

House Bill 70, the Restoration of Voting Rights Amendment, would allow voters statewide a chance to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to most former felons upon the completion of their sentence.

A KFTC factsheet can be downloaded HERE, and information about why an additional waiting period is a bad idea HERE.

House Bill 342, the Kentucky Forward Bill will make Kentucky's tax system more fair, adequate and sustainable with a broad variety of reforms. It will raise $570 million annually in new revenue when fully implemented, mostly from income and transactions that currently go untaxed. Lower income working folks will pay less in taxes, largely due to a 15% refundable Earned Income Tax Credit.

House Bill 380 would apply statewide housing standards to encourage “landlords and tenants to maintain and improve the quality of housing.” These standards already exist with local governments having the option to adopt them, though many have not. This bill would apply the standards equally all across the state.

House Bill 339 and Senate Bill 190, the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, will create a Renewable and Efficiency Portfolio Standard requiring utilities in Kentucky to get an increasing share of their electricity from clean, renewable sources and energy efficiency programs. The act also will established a Feed-in Tariff that sets a guaranteed rate for renewable energy producers. The two policies could create 28,000 new Kentucky jobs over the next 10 years.

House Bill 152 would have provided important protections for our water by prohibiting the dumping of toxic mine wastes, most commonly associated with mountaintop removal, into "an intermittent, perennial, or ephemeral stream or other water of the Commonwealth."

These are mostly headwater streams that are essential to the quality of waterways upstream and downstream. Mine wastes could be placed back on the mine site or an adjacent mine site as part of the reclamation process already specified in state and federal law rather than dumped over the side of the hill into the valleys and streams below.

House Bill 40 and Senate Bill 77 would expand expungement statues to include Class D felonies when certain conditions are met, including a five-year waiting period, and to exclude felonies referred to a grand jury where no indictment ensues.

Status

HB 40 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee, 15-3, on January 13, and by the full House, 80-11, on January 15. It was modified and approved with a committee substitute by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 17. It passed the full Senate on March 29, 33-5. The House concurred with Senate changes on April 1 by a 84-13 vote. The governor signed the bill into law on April 12.See how House and Senate members voted HERE.

House Bill 240 sets up a Pipeline Safety Fund in order to equip and train emergency responders for natural gas and hazardous liquids pipeline leaks, spills and explosions. Pipeline operators would be required to submit spill response plans that include evacuation plans and replacement of lost utilities and services. It also directs the Public Service Commission to get certification in order to set up a pipeline safety inspection program within the state.

House Bill 440 and Senate Bill 26 are identical bills that would make it a violation to change the direction of flow, substance, chemical makeup, temperature or pressure of any pipeline's contents in such a way that public safety is negatively affected.

House Bill 5 requires the state to operate and continue to operate a state healthcare exchange that is substantially similar to the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, commonly referred to as "kynect" as it existed on January 1, 2016, within the Commonwealth.

House Bill 86 would have closed several corporate tax loopholes that allow some profitable corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and use the revenue to fund a 7.5% Earned Income Tax Credit for Kentucky’s working families.

House Bill 203 and Senate Bill 41 would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for inmates presently sentenced to death, and permitt imprisonment for life without parole and imprisonment for life without parole for 25 years for offenses formerly denominated as capital offenses.

House Bill 278 would increase the minimum wage for many workers to $10.10 per hour over three years; apply to businesses with at least $500,000 revenue per year for retail stores, service industries, hotels and restaurants. Prohibit wage discrimination on the basis of sex, race, or national origin.

House Bill 428 would make it a Class D felony to knowingly own, possess, keep, breed, train, sell or otherwise transfer a dog for the purpose of that dog or its offspring being used to fight for pleasure or profit; exempt activities of animals engaged in guarding livestock.

Senate Bill 270 creates a mechanism for the Department of Juvenile Justice and other agencies that have contact with juveniles to collect data and report findings of juvenile contacts by age, race and gender. Each agency also must create a 3-year plan in accordance with the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

House Bill 400 would have established the External Detainee Fatality Review Panel to conduct comprehensive reviews of all facilities of individuals detained in county or regional jails or any facility operated by the Department of Corrections, the Department of Juvenile Justice, or an entity under contract with either department at the time of death or at the time medical assistance was sought for a condition that led to the individual’s death.

Senate Floor Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 5 would replace the two separate marriage license forms currently in SB 5 – one for same-sex couples and one for opposite sex couples – with one form allowing parties to check "bride", "groom," or "spouse" on the form. KFTC supports the amendment but not the bill.

Status

On February 18, the Senate defeated SFA1 by a 15-23 vote and then approved SB 5, 30-8. SB 5 now goes to the House. See how senators voted HERE.

NOTE: On March 23, the House Judiciary Committee amended Senate Bill 216, having to do with interstate family support orders, to create one marriage license form. The amended SB 216 was approved by the full House, 97-0, on March 25. The Senate concurred with House changes, 36-0, on April 1. SB 216 was signed into law by the governor on April 13.

House Concurrent Resolution 29 directs the Legislative Research Commission to establish a Timber Theft and Trespass Reduction Task Force to study issues regarding timber theft and trespass and to develop consensus recommendations to address those issues by November 30, 2016.

House Bill 2 would amend the state constitution (if approved by voters) to give Kentucky cities the authority to enact local sales tax increases of up to 1% for specific capital projects, if approved by local vote.

Read HERE why the LOST is a bad idea and there are ways to raise local revenue that are more fair.

Senate Bill 224 would void the state requirement that foremen receive six hours of foreman-specific safety training annually (in addition to the 16 hours of annual retraining required of all coal miners by state law). Instead foremen may get company training based on a weaker federal program (which does not include specific training for foremen).

SB 224 was approved by the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee on March 9, and by the full Senate, 26-10, on March 17. At a specially-called, spur-of-the moment meeting late in the day on March 23, the House Natural Resources & Environment Committee approved SB 224. House leaders had previously given the bill its first reading on the House floor, a maneuver usually used for fast-tracking a bill. In the end, opposition to SB 224 stopped it from getting a vote on the House floor.

Senate Bill 297 would allow the state of Kentucky to stop inspecting coal mines for safety violations and abolish the Division of Mine Safety’s ability to ensure that Kentucky miners work safely and in a safe place.

Republicans are trying to include a prevailing wage restriction in the state budget. According to the AFL-CIO, "in the governor’s budget proposal and in the Republican-controlled state Senate budget proposal is a prohibition against the use of the Kentucky prevailing wage law in any state expenditures." This is not included in the House budget.

House Bill 195 would reduce tax revenue for schools and county governments in counties where coal is mined by eliminating the unmined minerals tax for coal reserves that haven't been mined in the last 10 years.

House Bill 103 would circumvent Kentucky's existing ban on the construction of nuclear power plants by allowing plants to be constructed within 50 miles of sites previously used for the manufacture of nuclear products.

House Bill 104 would prohibit the Energy and Environment Cabinet from promulgating administrative regulations or imposing permit conditions to reduce carbon dioxide under federal rules or federal plan, and declare Kentucky a sanctuary state from for all polluters who want to ignore the regulatory authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement carbon dioxide limits under the Clean Power Plan.